Monday, 22 November 2010

Ruddy Duck...over here but not wanted...a shame

The Ruddy Duck is an introduced bird to Britain (originally from America) and as a result of escapes from wildlife collections in the 1940's they became established in the UK. Because of the Ruddy Ducks aggresive courting behaviour and a willingness to interbreed with the endangered White-headed Duck of Southern Europe it has led to a cull to extirpate the bird from these shores at a cost to the UK taxpayer of £4.6 million thats £740 a bird. I have just read that while we have been killing these (IMO) beautiful and comical little birds the French (whose Ruddy Duck population are more likely to be mating with the Spanish birds than ours) aren't doing anything about their Ruddy Duck population. I watched this funny little bird drumming his beak on his chest on my local patch last year but have not seen one in 2010. I hope it's not R.I.P to a lovely watchable little Duck in the UK and personally I think the whole exercise has been a total waste of our hard earned cash...........Rant over.

7 comments:

Wonderful shots!You would be welcome to contribute and help to begin a new endeavour called "World Bird Wednesday" a chance for bird photographers to share and spread word of their blogs to others!Visit http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/ and check it out! Springman!

intresting stuff regarding the Ruddys. It is a total waste of money and killing for killings sake. I also believe that when they go on a cull it isnt just the Ruddys that kop for it, almost anything that gets in the way will end up floating atop of the water.... very sad. And dont get me started on Red Grouse shootings!!

Huh!...You send me the Ruddy Ducks and I will send you the European House Sparrows and European Starlings. They compete and kill our native songbirds.:( Introducing non-native species is trouble.Glad you joined WBW!

I think we had better be pretty careful of attempting to control nature. After all we're the species that has done more damage to the earth than any bird.Our best efforts invented the gas powered engine, and that about says it all. Boom & Gary Of The Vermilon River.